Meh. The cheap one has the ideal screen size, the other are way too big, especially the + having a meh resolution for the size. But the cheap one has the smallest battery by far...too much compromises in all the models.
I don't care about the screen resolution but am disappointed at the big gap between the cameras in the S21 and the Ultra. The battery shouldn't be an issue with the smaller screen and more efficient SoC. Disappointingly nothing to tempt me away from my P30 Pro.
iPhone what!!!??? I wouldn't trade my Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro for a phone that has a stupid keyboard which has a button to switch between languages and emoji not be able to stay in the same place. iPhone can't play FLAC and HEVC 10bit. iPhone can't delete any picture or any song that you load from your PC. iPhone can't manage file. Photo album is a mess. It can't provide file info such as picture or music metadata. Pictures taken by iPhone are distorted... It just sucks in so many way.
Imagine calling other people dummies when so much of the bs you posted is outdated. FLAC and HEVC support was added years ago. As was being able to manage local files. There are hundreds of photo and music apps that can provide whatever metadata you want. And saying the photos are distorted on a site that has actual image samples and praised the cameras in every review is just being willingly stupid. It's insane how much of a luddite Android fanboys are for people who think they are better and smarter than everyone else.
FYI I'm not Android fan but Android is better than stupid iOS. And you're the bs one here - FLAC or MKV aren't allowed in iTunes for transfer to iPhone, let alone playing them. Sure you can find a way to load them in your iPhone and use third party apps to play them using software decoding. iPhone don't support HEVC 10bit MKV files with hardware decoding.
So you have to buy an app (or watch ads on free ones) to manage your files? Still, you can't delete any song or picture you load from your PC. Oh how do you like the iPhone fat notch for 3 years in a row? I thought Apple would steal the motorized popup front camera design from Xiaomi and claimed it's theirs for the iPhone 12. They did stole many design from Chinese phones in the past. And there charged you about 3 times the manufacturing cost for the iPhone and you still bought it. You surely have a pea size brain.
'iPhone can't delete any picture or any song that you load from your PC. iPhone can't manage file. Photo album is a mess'. I just made an account to say that this hit right in the feels. I wanted to 'try' an iPhone for a while and jumped on the new 12 Pro Max, screen has the signal status bars and battery indicator already burned in and I can't live without moving pictures from my PC to my phone and viceversa, selling the iPhone and getting the new galaxy...
If you really have status bars and battery indicator burned in - you got a defective screen. Or you cranked up the phone to max brightness and leaved it like that for God knowns how much time (and in that moment no matter the phone and your display manufacturer - OLED will burn-in). I can move pictures from my windows PC towards my phone and vice versa without issues + not to even start to talk about my MAC and how easy/good it is (apple ecosystem that everyone talks about, mostly those owning multiple apple devices so they can truly experience it).
S21 Ultra looks like a decent phone tho and I love the design of the black one, just don't understand why you need to justify your purchase with iphone bla-bla this and that.
I agree... I'd rather have a 120hz 720x1536 screen with 1800 nits, properly calibrated, than a screen with 4x the resolution that just eats the battery and has bad colour accuracy. The circumstances under which you can actually see the resolution difference are few. Watching movies or viewing photos, not a chance. Reading a poorly designed web page with microscopic fonts, maybe.
Cheap? You call 800 bucks cheap?! No wonder the government statisticians need sucked out of the finger hedonistic adjustments to keep the lie of no inflation alive (at least so that central banker chiefs can talk about it without blushing).
It happens to all phone reviewers. They get so many phones through they forget what actual reality is. They forget that most people get by just fine with say 2-3GB of ram and most don't even know how much ram their phone has but they feel that no one can survive with less than the latest flagship has in it. That and trying to write reviews to try and make the previous flagship model from 6 months sound totally obsolete. It's a job that just descends into madness and detachment from reality.
"Starting last year with the Note20, and unfortunately continued this year with the S21 and S21+, this doesn’t seem to be the case anymore, and essentially Samsung is diluting a key aspect of what their flagship devices were always known for.
I understand that Samsung is trying to price the devices lower, but it’s just not possible that an S21+ comes with a 1080p screen when for example a cheaper new Xiaomi Mi 11 is able to feature a 1440p 120Hz display."
I understand that the headphone jack fight is a lost cause, but it's odd to me that in the super-competitive smart phone market there's little interest in differentiating in terms of useful features. "I wish my phone had a fifth lens/sensor" is something I've never heard from anyone shopping for a new phone. Not to mention how ugly this redesign is...
being their own SOC means they'd have to do all the work; which is much worse than having to do half of it for as long as Qualcom does its share. Never going to happen unless Google's able to make it a requirement for a license.
True, but that doesn't change the fact that iphones are 6 years of FULL support (major, minor and even beta updates + day one as the most expensive current iphone) vs currently 3 for the galaxy and not a day one (regions, delays and whatnot). On top of that after apple developed their services and a lot of old iphone users basically still pay they - they stopped slowing down/killing phones. No need to, they take money from most via the services they have.
Granted, iphones are far from perfect too and have their own issues, but OS support is not one of them and knowing the reasoning behind it does not help if you are the end user than in one scenario gets 6 full + 3 security vs 3 "full" (in quotes as there are regions, delays, waiting and similar issues) and most likely 1 more security.
That's just FUD. iPhone users assume that OS updates are essential for your apps to work, but unlike iOS, Android apps keep working on older versions of Andriod. Android devices, or at least Samsung's, are supported with security patches as long as 5 years, sometimes 6. Our old Note 4 received a couple last year and it's been out since late 2014.
You guys need to stop. I'd rather not get any updates that my device couldn't handle, slowing it down to a crawl.
The idea is that you shouldn't give a damn how many sensors are on the back. You'll get noticeably better images through the zoom range. Something a phone with fewer sensors can't achieve.
Greater battery capacity / duration is one thing I will always pay for. That's one reason I use iPhones, even though their poor software QA irritates me greatly.
Totally agreed I don't see anything worth upgrading to from my S10 which has 1440p display and its weight of 157 g is perfect for me. And a headphone jack which I still use with my 1more tripple driver in ear headphones.
I'm also on the S10 and was keeping my eye out for this announcement, but looks like I'll be waiting at least another year to upgrade. There isn't any single downside of these phones that would totally put me off from buying one, but all of those losses together (and in one generation) is a slap in the face to Samsung's customer base.
I was quite set on buying a new SD888 phone this year to replace my Galaxy S7 Exynos phone, but after seeing the stupid choice Qualcomm has made by using Samsung 5nm process instead of TSMC 5nm...
It has bad thermals, similar efficiency with SD865 made on 7nm TSMC so...yeah, I'll say pass. My S7 Exynos is keeping up very well, performance, battery and feature wise. And it has better PPI compared to S21 so :))
Going with TSMC would have meant telling OEMs that they will have very few flagship devices to sell this year. The 5 nm node is being swarmed by Apple, 7 nm is being swarmed by AMD. And AMD is in the process of locking up whatever 5 nm Apple is not using.
Not having the absolute best node does not mean bad. Android flagships will probably be made with Samsung foundry chips for a while, so you might as well get a phone when you need or want one instead of waiting. Amongst the other companies fighting for TSMC wafers are Intel and Nvidia. I don’t see Qualcomm beating them to get a product in edgewise at TSMC.
That’s what they said (as well as BS about ‘space in the device’) but it was basically for greed so they could sell more wireless tat and because ‘Apple did it’. Waterproofing wasn’t an issue for S7, 8, 9 or 10 or Note handsets in the same generation... and if it was a size thing why did the non-waterproof tablets also lose it? Samsung deserves to be punished with poor sales for this generation of Galaxy handsets...
Yeah - the fact that they pulled it from devices even as they continue to increase the length of the display puts the lie to them *needing* the space, and Sony had been managing to waterproof with a headphone jack since at least 2013.
You people are so braindead it's unbelievable. It's been proven that these companies removed headphone jack because they cannot ignore the multi-billion dollar wireless earbuds business.
Apple makes more on their earbuds than most other cell phone companies (or any companies) on earth. Of course Google, Samsung, and OnePlus are eventually going to remove the jacks forever.
It's not because of waterproofing or space savings.
since the corona started I see zombies and lemmings everywhere, I am not surprised by anything anymore, especially by the brazen lies from the oh so environmental mobile phone (and the rest of product range) companies.
Are people submerging with the phones on regular basis now? Are these now like dive watches with idiotic 500-1000m waterproofness? When did people turn into whales or submarines? Functionality for functionality sake, at best, but rather to charge more.
Remove the charger in the box, say it is for environmental protection, leave the price the same and sell charger separately. These companies are full of you know what.
1440P to 1080P even on Plus RAM downgraded Wireless charging Wattage downgraded Plastic back ? WTF No SD slot No 3.5mm jack No charger in the box No earphones in the box
Same old non removable BS battery and ugly design. I hope people are not this stupid to buy this crap, I know many buy every year for unknown reasons. This is even worse if they buy into this bullshit.
And SD card slot is not about space only. It has a legit case of storing valuable data when in the need of emergency. Having an unencrypted SD Slot will let me store all my FLAC recordings (yeah LG phones do that and more..) and 4K videos, PDF documents, Word documents. Images which are personal and have private data. All of them will be on a physical disk. If the phone dies off in any way or anything happens to the phone, I can simply plug it into SD adapter and check them on PC as I need. That's a huge huge bonus. This is a pocket computer not a stupid ePeen Snapchat and social media crap device. I can list more like ROMs, Password files, tons of keys, Certificates etc when needed, VPN profiles and MORE... Removable Storage on Android and it's Filesystem is the greatst thing ever for a smartphone, and a Pocket Computer should act as an on the go computer not a castrated overpriced paperweight.
Fuck off Samdung. You screwed it up real bad this time. I hope LG and Sony step up more, so far they are the only ones having all boxes ticked. Even ASUS threw in towel shamelessly with Zenfone 7 while ZF6 had all of the features.
You're going back two generations for the no 3.5mm jack. I *hate* that downgrade too btw, but it was already gone in the S20's. Unfortunately, this is Samsung conforming to market trends with the SD card slot drop. It sucks but SD cards are turning into that "special use case" category.
The phone is $200 cheaper generation to generation on MSRP ($300 for the S21+) and swapped materials on the back (S21 only), and you don't get a charger or earphones in the box. I'd say that is them actually passing the savings on to the consumer! You lose about $50 worth of hardware and get back $200-300 on the price. But yeah, it's the internet so Samsung you suck!!!
I can see the argument (though don't agree) that it is a good idea to remove the 3.5mm jack. In the pursuit of thinner and lighter devices, the 3.5mm jack takes up a lot of area that can be better used for more powerful radio chips or just a little more battery. Also, it is easier to water/dust proof without it. Since I don't subscribe to the thinner and lighter mantra and don't always see good use of the freed up spaced, I find some of these arguments a little lacking. That said, there is at least an argument to be made.
When it comes to removing the SD Card, the only two arguments that they make are "everyone else is doing it (conforming to industry trends)" and "SD Cards are old". I refuse to even acknowledge the first argument as nobody in the legal system, my work place, or my social groups would accept that as the basis for any decision. While the second is true, the age of the technology has not prevented it from achieving its purpose. It still retains all the benefits of being removable, despite its age. While it is slower than internal storage, its speed does not currently preclude its primary function. I think it is more likely that the deciding factors are the unspoken arguments that removing the slots saves a little in cost and forces people who are desperate to get extra storage to upgrade to the more expensive model.
Everything about this launch looks designed to push as many people to the top model as possible. Downgrade the screen, ram, materials, etc. from the last generation for the lower and mid models while making the top end model an upgrade in almost every respect. Lack of SD Card also forces you to move up models to get to your desired storage. You could argue that they needed to do all that to lower the price on the lower and mid models, but I find that unconvincing based on both the fact that there are competitors with arguable better specs for less cost and the fact that the top model was a clear upgrade and still managed to drop the same $200 off of its MSRP as the others did. Incidentally, the $200 price drop on the top model also makes it more appealing. To me this appears less like Samsung adjusting to competition and industry trends than creating more segmentation within their line-up to push as many consumers to higher end models as possible.
There's simply far too little benefit to removing the jack that there's absolutely no valid argument for it from the perspective of the consumer. Samsung publically admitted that it added all 100mah to the battery which adding 0.1mm to the thickness absolutely will not add. https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/7/20758050/samsung... The S21U is now made somewhat competitive though factoring in a 20-30% drop in street price after 3-4 months per usual for Samsung, but still not for me since it doesn't have either a separate 3.5mm nor a second C port like ROGP3. Otherwise considering how SD888 isn't shaping up to be a proper upgrade (severe efficiency issues I heard) many last year flagships would be better choices than S21U.
"Plastic back ? WTF" I don't actually see that as a downgrade, my phone is going into a case and the plastic back is less likely to break, definitely a positive in my book.
If it goes in a case anyway it's not gonna break. I've never broken my phone's glass back(the motherboard did fail twice) since the switch to glass at S6. Instead a glass back helps retain resale value since it doesn't scratch like hell with the tiniest debris caught between the case and the back unlike plastic, or especially if the case is just a frame with an exposed back you need the additional hardness even more.
There's sheep for every brand. SD888 is likely a failure like SD810 and even if it isn't we're far past the point that two generations of flagship SoCs have immediately tangible differences, and there's nothing immediately tangible about the camera except the S21U's adjusted magnification ratios. As for "autonomy", we shall see how that battery fares with SD888.
..p.s. While i agree that sd slot omission is a practical downgrade, samsung is simply doing what market dictates. A typical galaxy s customer DOES NOT use an SD card. Also if you care so much about backing up data, there's USB sticks.
Your plastic back complaint is idiotic. RAM too, as 8GB is plenty for 99% of users.
I'd go further and say that for 99% of smartphone users 8GB is more than needed - I'd argue that you reach that point at 6GB, with 4GB being fine for at least 90%.
And I'd argue that Dimensity 1000 is plenty for 99% of users, LTE is plenty for 99.99% of users especially considering the current condition of 5G. What makes a flagship? Damn hopeless sheep.
"Plastic back ? WTF" This is one of those complaints that has swapped sides over the years. Personally I hate any material that's *not* plastic on the back of my phone - metal is a stupid choice and glass is fragile.
Honestly, this is just sad. All Samsung is doing, is trying to copy Apple- either with the "new" $799 price, the 1080p display, or removal of charger from the box. This is not going to work for them because surprise surprise- they are not Apple. I really wish Android OEM's stopped trying to be Apple and had a bit more originality.
Honestly, these make Apple's iPhone prices look good. That's not something Samsung can really afford to do, they'll probably compensate with a lot of "contract deals" like they normally do, but the retail price of these phones suck.
I'm seriously contemplating switching over now that the major Android OEMs have decided to copy everything about Apple's phones barring the software update longevity and SoC performance 😑
I too felt the Note 20 had one too many compromises, but I don't see the compromises on the S21 in the same light. I feel like the resolution drop is overstated because you had to compromise on the S20 to get 120 Hz anyways. 120 Hz didn't work at 1440p (it ran at 1080p), and if even if you did get a workaround it would kill battery life.
Basically Samsung had to make a firm choice; dump 120 Hz or drop the phone res. I think they made a good choice, and 48-120 Hz VRR is a fantastic upgrade over the fixed (battery sucking) 120 Hz on the S20. This is coming from an S20 user. When I'm not working from home, I turn 120 Hz off to get a nice battery life bump. Having 120 Hz with VRR is a huge upgrade for the S21.
As for the "glasstic" stuff - I mean, glass is wonderful but so many people put cases on these $1000+ phones anyways, I also feel that point is exaggerated. I'm actually more shocked by the complete lack of camera upgrades. That is something that Samsung AFAIK has never done on any S series generation; they always upgrade at least one of the cameras, even if it's in a small way.
So, to summarize, the S21 has an MSRP that is $200 less than the S20, while the S21+ has an MSRP that is $300 less than the S20+.
For that, your changes are (S21 vs S20): 48-120 Hz 1080p screen (with VRR) vs 120 Hz 1440p screen @ 1080p w/ scaling (or 1440p @ 60 Hz) flat screen (2mm wider) vs. slight curvature (I prefer the flat; still too many accidental presses) Snapdragon 888 vs 865 (big upgrade) no SD vs SD slot (downgrade here) glasstic vs glass back
That has me sold on the S21. IMO it shows a maturing of Samsung, as they are making cuts and compromises in the *right* places and still moving forward (ie. 120 Hz w/ VRR).
Don't waist your breath, these guys don't get it. This is definitely an upgrade over the S20 that I currently own. 48-120 Hz is my biggest feature. I almost never ran my phone in 1440p since this my GS7e. The pluses and notes are too damn big for me. My old GS4 was the perfect size IMO.
Plastic back is an upgrade for me. My S20's back shattered 1 month in, and the front shattered 2 months in at the edge of the curve (so flat screen is an upgrade as well). Luckily, my credit card covered the charges which would have run me down $300.
Despite having the same sensors, the camera processing and speed WILL be an upgrade knowing Samsung being with them for the past 10 years.
But here's my biggest surprise. I bought the S20 for around $650 after trading in my S7 (plus other discounts), and I got a leather case and additional fast charger for free. This time, I pre-ordered the S21 and got $700 for my S20 with $160 credit for other purchases (I got a leather case, rugged case, Buds+, Smart Tag, and a wireless charger, all discounted on top of the credit). Since it doesn't have an SD card slot, I ordered the 256GB version for $850. The net I paid for the pre-order was $164.82.
That is what I call an amazing deal for what is definitely an upgrade over my GS20. It's like I bought the accessories mentioned above at a discount, except they also upgraded my phone.
This is the first time I've upgraded yearly, and for $165, it's definitely worth it. The irrational snobs you see here who have next to no clue how to benchmark a mobile device (they think it's a workstation) are NOT the customers Samsung are catering for.
lmao you're literally the frog at the bottom of the well, did it ever occur to you that only Samsung had the limitation of being stuck on 1080P for 120Hz and that other brands already had other forms of dynamic refresh rate? Not totally dynamic because of lack of availability of LTPO but did save some battery, moreover some models with ample battery like ROGP3 didn't even need it to match Samsung's battery life. And S21/+ don't have LTPO anyway, according to this article. As a user of glass back Samsungs for over half a decade I never cracked the back, nor the screen, and I condemn the cheapening of supposed flagships. If you will unglue your eyes from Samsung you'd see that the overall package they offer(S21/+) are now bordering subpremium.
Your perception of "premium" is a lost cause, and your grasp over good engineering is delinquent at best. In a saturated industry of smartphone manufacturers, there is not one other company that builds a device the size of the regular galaxy S with as big of a screen and as big of a battery. Anything above 1080p is silly waist of resources just for a number on a spec sheet. There is much more to a screen than resolution after a certain threshold. I'm glad that Samsung is moving away from that old silly mentality. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't dissapointed by the SD card and headphone jack, but oh well....
But then again, spec whores like you are a lost cause, that even Samsung caters to with the Ultra... Not for me though.
Looks like these will wobble when used on a flat surface due to the off-center camera bump... since most of my phone use is with it resting on top of the desk, it'll be a no-go.
My S10e doesn't have this issue since the camera bump is centered.
128GB for the small screen size is just too small without option for expandable storage. Not everyone wants the larger screens. I got the S9 and are looking to upgrade to the S21 until now. Not the S21+ and Ultra is simply too large. I shoot a lot of pictures and video and don't want to endlessly offload pictures to cloud to free up space. I will have to look for other options for my upgrade.
Thanks Andrei! No 3.5 mm, no microSD slot? Why? Samsung reliably finds ways to shoot themselves in the foot, once the left, once the right, and sometimes both at once. Having a 3.5 mm audio out and expandable storage were key differentiating features vs. the big iPhone, and now they're gone.
And, while we're at it, for how long does Samsung guarantee software updates (OS and security) for these luxury items, especially the Ultra. Long-term software support is a key reason why iPhones keep their value much longer than Android phone, and that bugs me as an Android user for many years.
3.5mm was gone last generation, actually starting late 2019 with Note10, just vote Sony or LG with your wallet. I actually saw the SoC as why iOS devices keep value longer though.
I think, that speed of smartphone evolution is so low nowadays, that my 2-year old s10 even today feels like a very compatitive new device. Compared to s21, it has better screen with curvature (which I personally love) and better resolution. Front camera hole is on the side, which is preferrable for me. Same amount of storage and RAM. Snapdragon 888 is not far from 855 in terms of performance and power efficiency. Smaller dimensions with more premium materials used. Camera performs very similar to S21 (with native 2x zoom but no useless 8k). Headphone jack and MicroSD slot. The only big advantage of s21 is 120 Hz. And that's all!
What about what really matters? Build quality and stability? Endurance, connection quality? Sound quality, WiFi/Bluetooth quality and stability? 5G and battery life? Termals?
...No to most of those on the list. Anything regarding connections Samsung has been mediocre, at least not particularly flagship-worthy/market-leading, but honestly nobody has good 5G right now nor does 5G really matter. If you somehow feel that 5G actually matters, it's because your carrier is throttling 4G more to push for expensive 5G contracts.
" Both chipsets are characterised by being among the first Samsung 5nm manufactured SoCs in the market"
The Samsung Exynos 1080 is a 5nm chip that launched in November 2020. Vivo is the only manufacturer that I am aware of that is using it however. Its performance is said to be quite good for an upper midrange chip.
Because unlike iOS, most Android apps are built using some kind of Frankenstein framework that loads God-knows-how-many libraries and abstraction layers that eat memory and cpu resources like there's no tomorrow. Sad, but that's how it will always be until Google takes this seriously. Flutter is a less ideal late start, but not enough to convince iOS developers to jump ship.
I agree... I'd rather have a 120hz 720x1536 screen with 1800 nits, properly calibrated, than a screen with 4x the resolution that just eats the battery and has bad colour accuracy. The circumstances under which you can actually see the resolution difference are few. Watching movies or viewing photos, not a chance. Reading a poorly designed web page with microscopic fonts, maybe.
Uh, no. I tried a 4K movie in both 2K mode and 1080P mode on my Note8 and the difference was very visible, and I could see the difference in photos at a glance, the reason I still use 1080P is the device's poor battery life. Also rendering at 1080P and displaying on a higher resolution looks smoother than simply displaying 1080P native.
Samsung really keeps you semi-captive with their upgrade train; if you've bought from them once, you can typically get devices at a really massive discount with a trade-in (at least in the US). The prices are low enough that it makes it hard to say 'no', even for a mediocre upgrade - batteries degrade, glass gets stressed even without big drops, and Android phones are a ticking time bomb of security updates, but this time, I'm inclined to pass.
I'm not a fan of large phones, so it's the "base" model for me, which is only a $99 upgrade (plus Samsung's wheel of what minor phone damage disqualifies you from receiving the bonus) but the S21 seems like a better SoC and slightly better cameras in exchange for a lower-res screen and plastic back, with a wider device which Andrei rightfully points out really does negatively affect ergonomics very quickly.
They've also given people like me who might be persuaded to go up to the S21+ absolutely no reason to do so, and, I'm sorry, I'm not paying $400 + trade in for a phone, let alone the $1200 Sammy wants for one, particularly given the device size.
still too expensive for just a phone. I got my s8+ around $520. If there is an acceptable price creep since then, less than $700. $800-850 could buy a decent gaming laptop which can alternatively be a compact desktop, and a desktop has even more value.
At sub-$1000 I could only think of ugly entry level gaming laptops, sub-$2000 is midrange, where there would be some decent options. True TOTL is $4000 or so. Not saying any of the phones are cheap but laptops are not that cheap either.
S21's screen seems most reasonable to me. I can differentiate 120Hz from 60Hz but would have a tougher time differentiating 1080p and 1440p at that size
But you only get 120Hz at 1080p on the S20 devices anyway. I have an S20+, realised it's just too big for me so getting the S21 which looks fine, plus Samsung do a good trade-in deal. I thought the removal of the microSD was an absolute no-no then realised how much I was actually using so the 256GB built-in will be fine.
It would be nice if they'd do a non-pentile version of the 1080p displays, like they did with the Note 2's 720p display back in the day. I'd gladly take the reduced spatial resolution in exchange for better colour resolution.
No. That's what i thought and pointed out years ago here, but 1080p and even 720p native phones have been perceptually sharper than my s7 and s20 downscaled to 1080p and 720p.
I have them side-by-side now, and I stand corrected. Kind of. The colors and contrast are definitely better in the s21, but the s20's test is perceivably sharper.
Andrei, a bit of copyeditor advice if I may: you use certain words repetitively. "Actual" or "actually" is the most noticeable (but not the only one). You used it twice in the same sentence several times, two or three times in the same paragraph even more, and eighteen times in the one page where I counted.
As an editor I would tell you most of the "actually" uses were unnecessary to make your point, especially when it prefaces a simple statement of specifications or a design decision. Similarly, the reader already knows it's an opinion piece, so telling us that it's your/a feeling when giving a subjective description isn't needed. Pull out the disclaimer only when the fact/opinion boundary is unclear.
I'm surprised and disappointed that a site as technical and hardware-focused as Anandtech would not list physical sensor sizes or make any mention of them. Especially since the move toward larger sensors with more light-gathering surface area has been a hallmark of high-end phones the last year or two.
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That was a very negative read. And a lot too many uses of the word "actually". And this term "ugly compromises". Would that ever be written in an iPhone review/preview?
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Vitor - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
Meh. The cheap one has the ideal screen size, the other are way too big, especially the + having a meh resolution for the size. But the cheap one has the smallest battery by far...too much compromises in all the models.BedfordTim - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
I don't care about the screen resolution but am disappointed at the big gap between the cameras in the S21 and the Ultra. The battery shouldn't be an issue with the smaller screen and more efficient SoC.Disappointingly nothing to tempt me away from my P30 Pro.
Speedfriend - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
The P30 Pro is such a fantastic phone, I don't know what will tempt me away from it!29a - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
iPhonesonny73n - Friday, January 15, 2021 - link
iPhone what!!!??? I wouldn't trade my Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro for a phone that has a stupid keyboard which has a button to switch between languages and emoji not be able to stay in the same place. iPhone can't play FLAC and HEVC 10bit. iPhone can't delete any picture or any song that you load from your PC. iPhone can't manage file. Photo album is a mess. It can't provide file info such as picture or music metadata. Pictures taken by iPhone are distorted... It just sucks in so many way.iPhone is for dummies. Period.
iphonebestgamephone - Friday, January 15, 2021 - link
Good thing a lot of people dont care about those.krazyfrog - Friday, January 15, 2021 - link
Imagine calling other people dummies when so much of the bs you posted is outdated. FLAC and HEVC support was added years ago. As was being able to manage local files. There are hundreds of photo and music apps that can provide whatever metadata you want. And saying the photos are distorted on a site that has actual image samples and praised the cameras in every review is just being willingly stupid. It's insane how much of a luddite Android fanboys are for people who think they are better and smarter than everyone else.sonny73n - Saturday, January 16, 2021 - link
FYI I'm not Android fan but Android is better than stupid iOS. And you're the bs one here - FLAC or MKV aren't allowed in iTunes for transfer to iPhone, let alone playing them. Sure you can find a way to load them in your iPhone and use third party apps to play them using software decoding. iPhone don't support HEVC 10bit MKV files with hardware decoding.So you have to buy an app (or watch ads on free ones) to manage your files? Still, you can't delete any song or picture you load from your PC. Oh how do you like the iPhone fat notch for 3 years in a row? I thought Apple would steal the motorized popup front camera design from Xiaomi and claimed it's theirs for the iPhone 12. They did stole many design from Chinese phones in the past. And there charged you about 3 times the manufacturing cost for the iPhone and you still bought it. You surely have a pea size brain.
iphonebestgamephone - Sunday, January 17, 2021 - link
Which chinese phone did they copy? Was it the ui or hardware design? I remember the oneplus 5 copied the iphone 7 plus, and xiaomi mi 8 the iphone x.FloridaMan - Sunday, January 17, 2021 - link
BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!DesiredUsername1 - Friday, January 15, 2021 - link
'iPhone can't delete any picture or any song that you load from your PC. iPhone can't manage file. Photo album is a mess'.I just made an account to say that this hit right in the feels. I wanted to 'try' an iPhone for a while and jumped on the new 12 Pro Max, screen has the signal status bars and battery indicator already burned in and I can't live without moving pictures from my PC to my phone and viceversa, selling the iPhone and getting the new galaxy...
cha0z_ - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link
If you really have status bars and battery indicator burned in - you got a defective screen. Or you cranked up the phone to max brightness and leaved it like that for God knowns how much time (and in that moment no matter the phone and your display manufacturer - OLED will burn-in).I can move pictures from my windows PC towards my phone and vice versa without issues + not to even start to talk about my MAC and how easy/good it is (apple ecosystem that everyone talks about, mostly those owning multiple apple devices so they can truly experience it).
S21 Ultra looks like a decent phone tho and I love the design of the black one, just don't understand why you need to justify your purchase with iphone bla-bla this and that.
linuxgeex - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
I agree... I'd rather have a 120hz 720x1536 screen with 1800 nits, properly calibrated, than a screen with 4x the resolution that just eats the battery and has bad colour accuracy. The circumstances under which you can actually see the resolution difference are few. Watching movies or viewing photos, not a chance. Reading a poorly designed web page with microscopic fonts, maybe.lilmoe - Friday, January 15, 2021 - link
You do realize you can lower the resolution down to 720p on these phones since the S7, right? The calibration in natural mode is perfect as well.StevoLincolnite - Monday, January 18, 2021 - link
Good thing that the SuperAMOLED displays actually have really good colour accuracy.And I actually love the 1440P panels, they are crisp, they are sharp... And it's 120hz to boot.
#AndroidMasterRace
0iron - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
I'm not sure if it's more efficient. Samsung 5nm LPE might have comparable power efficiency with TSMC N7P in Snapdragon 865. TSMC N5 should be better.iphonebestgamephone - Friday, January 15, 2021 - link
The efficiency of 888 much worse than 865, in the iqoo7 and mi 11.boozed - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
This. Also I can't believe a display having "only" ~420/390 ppi is a problem, let alone a serious one.Peskarik - Monday, January 18, 2021 - link
Cheap? You call 800 bucks cheap?!No wonder the government statisticians need sucked out of the finger hedonistic adjustments to keep the lie of no inflation alive (at least so that central banker chiefs can talk about it without blushing).
jabber - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link
It happens to all phone reviewers. They get so many phones through they forget what actual reality is. They forget that most people get by just fine with say 2-3GB of ram and most don't even know how much ram their phone has but they feel that no one can survive with less than the latest flagship has in it. That and trying to write reviews to try and make the previous flagship model from 6 months sound totally obsolete. It's a job that just descends into madness and detachment from reality.StevoLincolnite - Monday, January 18, 2021 - link
I have the Note20 Ultra and I could easily live with a larger screen for what I do. (Fire and Rescue.)DanNeely - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
Two paragraphs were duplicated in the article:"Starting last year with the Note20, and unfortunately continued this year with the S21 and S21+, this doesn’t seem to be the case anymore, and essentially Samsung is diluting a key aspect of what their flagship devices were always known for.
I understand that Samsung is trying to price the devices lower, but it’s just not possible that an S21+ comes with a 1080p screen when for example a cheaper new Xiaomi Mi 11 is able to feature a 1440p 120Hz display."
Copy/Paste/Paste error when moving them?
thatoneguy247 - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
I understand that the headphone jack fight is a lost cause, but it's odd to me that in the super-competitive smart phone market there's little interest in differentiating in terms of useful features. "I wish my phone had a fifth lens/sensor" is something I've never heard from anyone shopping for a new phone. Not to mention how ugly this redesign is...BedfordTim - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
I'll second that. They all just follow fashion.ikjadoon - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
You know what I would've loved?"Samsung announces all Exynos 2100 devices will have five years of guaranteed Android feature updates"
It's literally Samsung's SoC. They design the BSP. It should've been a no-brainer.
DanNeely - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
being their own SOC means they'd have to do all the work; which is much worse than having to do half of it for as long as Qualcom does its share. Never going to happen unless Google's able to make it a requirement for a license.lmcd - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
Disagreed, Exynos next gen will have the mainline GPU done for it.lilmoe - Friday, January 15, 2021 - link
Mali GPU drivers are not supported by Samsung, and neither is the OS. Your complaints should be directed to Google.cha0z_ - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link
True, but that doesn't change the fact that iphones are 6 years of FULL support (major, minor and even beta updates + day one as the most expensive current iphone) vs currently 3 for the galaxy and not a day one (regions, delays and whatnot). On top of that after apple developed their services and a lot of old iphone users basically still pay they - they stopped slowing down/killing phones. No need to, they take money from most via the services they have.Granted, iphones are far from perfect too and have their own issues, but OS support is not one of them and knowing the reasoning behind it does not help if you are the end user than in one scenario gets 6 full + 3 security vs 3 "full" (in quotes as there are regions, delays, waiting and similar issues) and most likely 1 more security.
lilmoe - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link
That's just FUD.iPhone users assume that OS updates are essential for your apps to work, but unlike iOS, Android apps keep working on older versions of Andriod.
Android devices, or at least Samsung's, are supported with security patches as long as 5 years, sometimes 6. Our old Note 4 received a couple last year and it's been out since late 2014.
You guys need to stop. I'd rather not get any updates that my device couldn't handle, slowing it down to a crawl.
xdrol - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link
ARM's Utgard (T450) drivers were last updated 28th September 2020..arashi - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
Looking forward to switch to the Xperia 5 III or IV whenever my OP7P dies.Spunjji - Friday, January 15, 2021 - link
Yup. This continues to astonish me, especially as it was such a battleground when the feature was first removed by Apple.Clearly whatever design benefits there are for the manufacturers outweigh any consumer concerns.
lilmoe - Friday, January 15, 2021 - link
The idea is that you shouldn't give a damn how many sensors are on the back. You'll get noticeably better images through the zoom range. Something a phone with fewer sensors can't achieve.Vitor - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
Make the 6.2 version with a 4800/5000mah battery and then we would be talking.Sivar - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
Greater battery capacity / duration is one thing I will always pay for. That's one reason I use iPhones, even though their poor software QA irritates me greatly.Sharken03 - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
I'd rather go with a slightly smaller battery and then have a lighter phone. Most flagship phones are around 200g and it's just too heavy.Makaveli - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
Totally agreed I don't see anything worth upgrading to from my S10 which has 1440p display and its weight of 157 g is perfect for me. And a headphone jack which I still use with my 1more tripple driver in ear headphones.Dizoja86 - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
I'm also on the S10 and was keeping my eye out for this announcement, but looks like I'll be waiting at least another year to upgrade. There isn't any single downside of these phones that would totally put me off from buying one, but all of those losses together (and in one generation) is a slap in the face to Samsung's customer base.Spunjji - Friday, January 15, 2021 - link
I'd still buy an S10 today if I could get a model with the Qualcomm CPU, but I'm in the UK and the Exynos variant was... un-good 😣yeeeeman - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
I was quite set on buying a new SD888 phone this year to replace my Galaxy S7 Exynos phone, but after seeing the stupid choice Qualcomm has made by using Samsung 5nm process instead of TSMC 5nm...yeeeeman - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
It has bad thermals, similar efficiency with SD865 made on 7nm TSMC so...yeah, I'll say pass. My S7 Exynos is keeping up very well, performance, battery and feature wise. And it has better PPI compared to S21 so :))iphonebestgamephone - Friday, January 15, 2021 - link
Efficiency is not similar, its worse.The Hardcard - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
Going with TSMC would have meant telling OEMs that they will have very few flagship devices to sell this year. The 5 nm node is being swarmed by Apple, 7 nm is being swarmed by AMD. And AMD is in the process of locking up whatever 5 nm Apple is not using.Not having the absolute best node does not mean bad. Android flagships will probably be made with Samsung foundry chips for a while, so you might as well get a phone when you need or want one instead of waiting. Amongst the other companies fighting for TSMC wafers are Intel and Nvidia. I don’t see Qualcomm beating them to get a product in edgewise at TSMC.
Spunjji - Friday, January 15, 2021 - link
Yeah, I think we're long past the stage where fussing too much over the SoC lithography - as opposed to the overall package - made too much sense.0iron - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
Apple books TSMC’s entire 5nm production capacity and Qualcomm won't outbid Apple. At least Samsung 5nm LPE is comparable with TSMC N7P.praktik - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
Pissed about the missing headphone jack.. totally thought they were gonna bring it backMaxpower27 - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
Based on what?29a - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
I don't think the jack will be coming back, I think they got rid of them so they will be more waterproof.supdawgwtfd - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
*citation needed.plewis00 - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
That’s what they said (as well as BS about ‘space in the device’) but it was basically for greed so they could sell more wireless tat and because ‘Apple did it’. Waterproofing wasn’t an issue for S7, 8, 9 or 10 or Note handsets in the same generation... and if it was a size thing why did the non-waterproof tablets also lose it? Samsung deserves to be punished with poor sales for this generation of Galaxy handsets...Spunjji - Friday, January 15, 2021 - link
Yeah - the fact that they pulled it from devices even as they continue to increase the length of the display puts the lie to them *needing* the space, and Sony had been managing to waterproof with a headphone jack since at least 2013.Tams80 - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
Which is stupid, from a consumer perspective, as the seal degrades enough in a year to significantly reduce the ingress resistance.flyingpants265 - Saturday, January 16, 2021 - link
You people are so braindead it's unbelievable. It's been proven that these companies removed headphone jack because they cannot ignore the multi-billion dollar wireless earbuds business.Apple makes more on their earbuds than most other cell phone companies (or any companies) on earth. Of course Google, Samsung, and OnePlus are eventually going to remove the jacks forever.
It's not because of waterproofing or space savings.
Peskarik - Monday, January 18, 2021 - link
since the corona started I see zombies and lemmings everywhere, I am not surprised by anything anymore, especially by the brazen lies from the oh so environmental mobile phone (and the rest of product range) companies.cha0z_ - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link
This.Peskarik - Monday, January 18, 2021 - link
Are people submerging with the phones on regular basis now? Are these now like dive watches with idiotic 500-1000m waterproofness? When did people turn into whales or submarines? Functionality for functionality sake, at best, but rather to charge more.Remove the charger in the box, say it is for environmental protection, leave the price the same and sell charger separately. These companies are full of you know what.
Peskarik - Monday, January 18, 2021 - link
I think you can forget any common sense with Samsung now, they try to apple-ize as much and as fast as they can.trenzterra - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
Do the global models come with dual physical SIMs? Cropping the S21 and s21+ with so little storage and no microSD support is a dumb move imohanselltc - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
DisappointmentSilver5urfer - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
So far list of downgrades...1440P to 1080P even on Plus
RAM downgraded
Wireless charging Wattage downgraded
Plastic back ? WTF
No SD slot
No 3.5mm jack
No charger in the box
No earphones in the box
Same old non removable BS battery and ugly design. I hope people are not this stupid to buy this crap, I know many buy every year for unknown reasons. This is even worse if they buy into this bullshit.
And SD card slot is not about space only. It has a legit case of storing valuable data when in the need of emergency. Having an unencrypted SD Slot will let me store all my FLAC recordings (yeah LG phones do that and more..) and 4K videos, PDF documents, Word documents. Images which are personal and have private data. All of them will be on a physical disk. If the phone dies off in any way or anything happens to the phone, I can simply plug it into SD adapter and check them on PC as I need. That's a huge huge bonus. This is a pocket computer not a stupid ePeen Snapchat and social media crap device. I can list more like ROMs, Password files, tons of keys, Certificates etc when needed, VPN profiles and MORE... Removable Storage on Android and it's Filesystem is the greatst thing ever for a smartphone, and a Pocket Computer should act as an on the go computer not a castrated overpriced paperweight.
Fuck off Samdung. You screwed it up real bad this time. I hope LG and Sony step up more, so far they are the only ones having all boxes ticked. Even ASUS threw in towel shamelessly with Zenfone 7 while ZF6 had all of the features.
jiffylube1024 - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
You're going back two generations for the no 3.5mm jack. I *hate* that downgrade too btw, but it was already gone in the S20's. Unfortunately, this is Samsung conforming to market trends with the SD card slot drop. It sucks but SD cards are turning into that "special use case" category.The phone is $200 cheaper generation to generation on MSRP ($300 for the S21+) and swapped materials on the back (S21 only), and you don't get a charger or earphones in the box. I'd say that is them actually passing the savings on to the consumer! You lose about $50 worth of hardware and get back $200-300 on the price.
But yeah, it's the internet so Samsung you suck!!!
BurntMyBacon - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
I can see the argument (though don't agree) that it is a good idea to remove the 3.5mm jack. In the pursuit of thinner and lighter devices, the 3.5mm jack takes up a lot of area that can be better used for more powerful radio chips or just a little more battery. Also, it is easier to water/dust proof without it. Since I don't subscribe to the thinner and lighter mantra and don't always see good use of the freed up spaced, I find some of these arguments a little lacking. That said, there is at least an argument to be made.When it comes to removing the SD Card, the only two arguments that they make are "everyone else is doing it (conforming to industry trends)" and "SD Cards are old". I refuse to even acknowledge the first argument as nobody in the legal system, my work place, or my social groups would accept that as the basis for any decision. While the second is true, the age of the technology has not prevented it from achieving its purpose. It still retains all the benefits of being removable, despite its age. While it is slower than internal storage, its speed does not currently preclude its primary function. I think it is more likely that the deciding factors are the unspoken arguments that removing the slots saves a little in cost and forces people who are desperate to get extra storage to upgrade to the more expensive model.
Everything about this launch looks designed to push as many people to the top model as possible. Downgrade the screen, ram, materials, etc. from the last generation for the lower and mid models while making the top end model an upgrade in almost every respect. Lack of SD Card also forces you to move up models to get to your desired storage. You could argue that they needed to do all that to lower the price on the lower and mid models, but I find that unconvincing based on both the fact that there are competitors with arguable better specs for less cost and the fact that the top model was a clear upgrade and still managed to drop the same $200 off of its MSRP as the others did. Incidentally, the $200 price drop on the top model also makes it more appealing. To me this appears less like Samsung adjusting to competition and industry trends than creating more segmentation within their line-up to push as many consumers to higher end models as possible.
s.yu - Sunday, January 17, 2021 - link
There's simply far too little benefit to removing the jack that there's absolutely no valid argument for it from the perspective of the consumer. Samsung publically admitted that it added all 100mah to the battery which adding 0.1mm to the thickness absolutely will not add. https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/7/20758050/samsung...The S21U is now made somewhat competitive though factoring in a 20-30% drop in street price after 3-4 months per usual for Samsung, but still not for me since it doesn't have either a separate 3.5mm nor a second C port like ROGP3. Otherwise considering how SD888 isn't shaping up to be a proper upgrade (severe efficiency issues I heard) many last year flagships would be better choices than S21U.
Tams80 - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
I'll give you all that but the plastic back.Glass backs are utterly stupid. They should never have been a thing.
RSAUser - Friday, January 15, 2021 - link
"Plastic back ? WTF"I don't actually see that as a downgrade, my phone is going into a case and the plastic back is less likely to break, definitely a positive in my book.
s.yu - Sunday, January 17, 2021 - link
If it goes in a case anyway it's not gonna break. I've never broken my phone's glass back(the motherboard did fail twice) since the switch to glass at S6. Instead a glass back helps retain resale value since it doesn't scratch like hell with the tiniest debris caught between the case and the back unlike plastic, or especially if the case is just a frame with an exposed back you need the additional hardness even more.darkich - Friday, January 15, 2021 - link
The upgrades in autonomy, performance and camera will all be so tangible that it will makeshift rant of yours a BS one.Whiner.
s.yu - Sunday, January 17, 2021 - link
There's sheep for every brand.SD888 is likely a failure like SD810 and even if it isn't we're far past the point that two generations of flagship SoCs have immediately tangible differences, and there's nothing immediately tangible about the camera except the S21U's adjusted magnification ratios. As for "autonomy", we shall see how that battery fares with SD888.
darkich - Friday, January 15, 2021 - link
..p.s.While i agree that sd slot omission is a practical downgrade, samsung is simply doing what market dictates.
A typical galaxy s customer DOES NOT use an SD card.
Also if you care so much about backing up data, there's USB sticks.
Your plastic back complaint is idiotic.
RAM too, as 8GB is plenty for 99% of users.
Spunjji - Friday, January 15, 2021 - link
I'd go further and say that for 99% of smartphone users 8GB is more than needed - I'd argue that you reach that point at 6GB, with 4GB being fine for at least 90%.s.yu - Sunday, January 17, 2021 - link
And I'd argue that Dimensity 1000 is plenty for 99% of users, LTE is plenty for 99.99% of users especially considering the current condition of 5G.What makes a flagship?
Damn hopeless sheep.
Spunjji - Friday, January 15, 2021 - link
"Plastic back ? WTF"This is one of those complaints that has swapped sides over the years. Personally I hate any material that's *not* plastic on the back of my phone - metal is a stupid choice and glass is fragile.
Peskarik - Monday, January 18, 2021 - link
people ARE this stupid, mateisthisavailable - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
Honestly, this is just sad. All Samsung is doing, is trying to copy Apple- either with the "new" $799 price, the 1080p display, or removal of charger from the box. This is not going to work for them because surprise surprise- they are not Apple. I really wish Android OEM's stopped trying to be Apple and had a bit more originality.Spunjji - Friday, January 15, 2021 - link
Most smartphone companies seem to be removing the charger from the box. It's more of an e-waste thing than a trend.Flunk - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
Honestly, these make Apple's iPhone prices look good. That's not something Samsung can really afford to do, they'll probably compensate with a lot of "contract deals" like they normally do, but the retail price of these phones suck.Spunjji - Friday, January 15, 2021 - link
I'm seriously contemplating switching over now that the major Android OEMs have decided to copy everything about Apple's phones barring the software update longevity and SoC performance 😑jiffylube1024 - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
I too felt the Note 20 had one too many compromises, but I don't see the compromises on the S21 in the same light. I feel like the resolution drop is overstated because you had to compromise on the S20 to get 120 Hz anyways. 120 Hz didn't work at 1440p (it ran at 1080p), and if even if you did get a workaround it would kill battery life.Basically Samsung had to make a firm choice; dump 120 Hz or drop the phone res. I think they made a good choice, and 48-120 Hz VRR is a fantastic upgrade over the fixed (battery sucking) 120 Hz on the S20. This is coming from an S20 user. When I'm not working from home, I turn 120 Hz off to get a nice battery life bump. Having 120 Hz with VRR is a huge upgrade for the S21.
As for the "glasstic" stuff - I mean, glass is wonderful but so many people put cases on these $1000+ phones anyways, I also feel that point is exaggerated.
I'm actually more shocked by the complete lack of camera upgrades. That is something that Samsung AFAIK has never done on any S series generation; they always upgrade at least one of the cameras, even if it's in a small way.
So, to summarize, the S21 has an MSRP that is $200 less than the S20, while the S21+ has an MSRP that is $300 less than the S20+.
For that, your changes are (S21 vs S20):
48-120 Hz 1080p screen (with VRR) vs 120 Hz 1440p screen @ 1080p w/ scaling (or 1440p @ 60 Hz)
flat screen (2mm wider) vs. slight curvature (I prefer the flat; still too many accidental presses)
Snapdragon 888 vs 865 (big upgrade)
no SD vs SD slot (downgrade here)
glasstic vs glass back
That has me sold on the S21. IMO it shows a maturing of Samsung, as they are making cuts and compromises in the *right* places and still moving forward (ie. 120 Hz w/ VRR).
Silver5urfer - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
Just Consume !!!Dizoja86 - Friday, January 15, 2021 - link
The S7 and S8 used the same camera. The S8 took slightly better pictures due to processing, so hopefully we at least see a similar situation here.lilmoe - Friday, January 15, 2021 - link
Don't waist your breath, these guys don't get it.This is definitely an upgrade over the S20 that I currently own. 48-120 Hz is my biggest feature. I almost never ran my phone in 1440p since this my GS7e. The pluses and notes are too damn big for me. My old GS4 was the perfect size IMO.
Plastic back is an upgrade for me. My S20's back shattered 1 month in, and the front shattered 2 months in at the edge of the curve (so flat screen is an upgrade as well). Luckily, my credit card covered the charges which would have run me down $300.
Despite having the same sensors, the camera processing and speed WILL be an upgrade knowing Samsung being with them for the past 10 years.
But here's my biggest surprise. I bought the S20 for around $650 after trading in my S7 (plus other discounts), and I got a leather case and additional fast charger for free. This time, I pre-ordered the S21 and got $700 for my S20 with $160 credit for other purchases (I got a leather case, rugged case, Buds+, Smart Tag, and a wireless charger, all discounted on top of the credit). Since it doesn't have an SD card slot, I ordered the 256GB version for $850. The net I paid for the pre-order was $164.82.
That is what I call an amazing deal for what is definitely an upgrade over my GS20. It's like I bought the accessories mentioned above at a discount, except they also upgraded my phone.
This is the first time I've upgraded yearly, and for $165, it's definitely worth it. The irrational snobs you see here who have next to no clue how to benchmark a mobile device (they think it's a workstation) are NOT the customers Samsung are catering for.
iphonebestgamephone - Saturday, January 16, 2021 - link
What the snob benchmark? Comparing 888 to 865 and being disappointed by the worse efficiency?s.yu - Sunday, January 17, 2021 - link
lmao you're literally the frog at the bottom of the well, did it ever occur to you that only Samsung had the limitation of being stuck on 1080P for 120Hz and that other brands already had other forms of dynamic refresh rate? Not totally dynamic because of lack of availability of LTPO but did save some battery, moreover some models with ample battery like ROGP3 didn't even need it to match Samsung's battery life. And S21/+ don't have LTPO anyway, according to this article.As a user of glass back Samsungs for over half a decade I never cracked the back, nor the screen, and I condemn the cheapening of supposed flagships. If you will unglue your eyes from Samsung you'd see that the overall package they offer(S21/+) are now bordering subpremium.
lilmoe - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link
Your perception of "premium" is a lost cause, and your grasp over good engineering is delinquent at best.In a saturated industry of smartphone manufacturers, there is not one other company that builds a device the size of the regular galaxy S with as big of a screen and as big of a battery. Anything above 1080p is silly waist of resources just for a number on a spec sheet. There is much more to a screen than resolution after a certain threshold. I'm glad that Samsung is moving away from that old silly mentality. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't dissapointed by the SD card and headphone jack, but oh well....
But then again, spec whores like you are a lost cause, that even Samsung caters to with the Ultra... Not for me though.
emgarf - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
Looks like these will wobble when used on a flat surface due to the off-center camera bump... since most of my phone use is with it resting on top of the desk, it'll be a no-go.My S10e doesn't have this issue since the camera bump is centered.
Spunjji - Friday, January 15, 2021 - link
Surely a case would sort that?emgarf - Friday, January 15, 2021 - link
Have never used a case and prefer not to start.TheinsanegamerN - Friday, January 15, 2021 - link
Surely a properly designed phone would fix thatBroderLund - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
128GB for the small screen size is just too small without option for expandable storage. Not everyone wants the larger screens. I got the S9 and are looking to upgrade to the S21 until now. Not the S21+ and Ultra is simply too large. I shoot a lot of pictures and video and don't want to endlessly offload pictures to cloud to free up space. I will have to look for other options for my upgrade.MTEK - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
Is there a technical reason why the Ultra only supports WiFi 6E or was this a dick move by their marketing dept?Andrei Frumusanu - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
Probably cost-cutting.shabby - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
Dick move indeed, it uses the same modem.Spunjji - Friday, January 15, 2021 - link
Big-dick dick moveCarryBeat - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link
Big black cock moveeastcoast_pete - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
Thanks Andrei! No 3.5 mm, no microSD slot? Why? Samsung reliably finds ways to shoot themselves in the foot, once the left, once the right, and sometimes both at once. Having a 3.5 mm audio out and expandable storage were key differentiating features vs. the big iPhone, and now they're gone.And, while we're at it, for how long does Samsung guarantee software updates (OS and security) for these luxury items, especially the Ultra. Long-term software support is a key reason why iPhones keep their value much longer than Android phone, and that bugs me as an Android user for many years.
Ptosio - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
The thing is, on iPhone you NEED these "software updates" as when you're a generation or two behind, new apps, including third-party, stop to work.While on Android you can comfortably use even Android 6 and everything will work just fine.
s.yu - Sunday, January 17, 2021 - link
3.5mm was gone last generation, actually starting late 2019 with Note10, just vote Sony or LG with your wallet.I actually saw the SoC as why iOS devices keep value longer though.
druzzyaka - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
I think, that speed of smartphone evolution is so low nowadays, that my 2-year old s10 even today feels like a very compatitive new device.Compared to s21, it has better screen with curvature (which I personally love) and better resolution. Front camera hole is on the side, which is preferrable for me. Same amount of storage and RAM. Snapdragon 888 is not far from 855 in terms of performance and power efficiency. Smaller dimensions with more premium materials used. Camera performs very similar to S21 (with native 2x zoom but no useless 8k). Headphone jack and MicroSD slot. The only big advantage of s21 is 120 Hz. And that's all!
s.yu - Sunday, January 17, 2021 - link
Definitely. If only Note10 kept the jack I'd have switched long ago despite the relatively bad camera.lesbaer45 - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
No 3.5 jack.No SD card slot.
No removable battery.
MSRP $1300+
Yeah. No.
So I guess I hang onto my S5 for another year or until it breaks. :-/
I think I'll just have to go with another vendor next time. Samsung no longer seems interested in providing a phone that people want.
druzzyaka - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
One UI is the only thing, that really makes Samsung much better, than OnePlus and, especially, Xiaomi.TheinsanegamerN - Friday, January 15, 2021 - link
Motorola has been hitting it out of the park. They’ll give you a SD card slot, a headphone jack, a 5000mah battery, all for $250Zingam - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
What about what really matters? Build quality and stability? Endurance, connection quality? Sound quality, WiFi/Bluetooth quality and stability? 5G and battery life? Termals?s.yu - Sunday, January 17, 2021 - link
...No to most of those on the list. Anything regarding connections Samsung has been mediocre, at least not particularly flagship-worthy/market-leading, but honestly nobody has good 5G right now nor does 5G really matter. If you somehow feel that 5G actually matters, it's because your carrier is throttling 4G more to push for expensive 5G contracts.fishingbait - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
" Both chipsets are characterised by being among the first Samsung 5nm manufactured SoCs in the market"The Samsung Exynos 1080 is a 5nm chip that launched in November 2020. Vivo is the only manufacturer that I am aware of that is using it however. Its performance is said to be quite good for an upper midrange chip.
29a - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
Why do Android phones need so much memory?iphonebestgamephone - Friday, January 15, 2021 - link
To keep more apps in memory.lilmoe - Friday, January 15, 2021 - link
Because unlike iOS, most Android apps are built using some kind of Frankenstein framework that loads God-knows-how-many libraries and abstraction layers that eat memory and cpu resources like there's no tomorrow. Sad, but that's how it will always be until Google takes this seriously. Flutter is a less ideal late start, but not enough to convince iOS developers to jump ship.linuxgeex - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
I agree... I'd rather have a 120hz 720x1536 screen with 1800 nits, properly calibrated, than a screen with 4x the resolution that just eats the battery and has bad colour accuracy. The circumstances under which you can actually see the resolution difference are few. Watching movies or viewing photos, not a chance. Reading a poorly designed web page with microscopic fonts, maybe.s.yu - Sunday, January 17, 2021 - link
Uh, no. I tried a 4K movie in both 2K mode and 1080P mode on my Note8 and the difference was very visible, and I could see the difference in photos at a glance, the reason I still use 1080P is the device's poor battery life. Also rendering at 1080P and displaying on a higher resolution looks smoother than simply displaying 1080P native.sing_electric - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
Samsung really keeps you semi-captive with their upgrade train; if you've bought from them once, you can typically get devices at a really massive discount with a trade-in (at least in the US). The prices are low enough that it makes it hard to say 'no', even for a mediocre upgrade - batteries degrade, glass gets stressed even without big drops, and Android phones are a ticking time bomb of security updates, but this time, I'm inclined to pass.I'm not a fan of large phones, so it's the "base" model for me, which is only a $99 upgrade (plus Samsung's wheel of what minor phone damage disqualifies you from receiving the bonus) but the S21 seems like a better SoC and slightly better cameras in exchange for a lower-res screen and plastic back, with a wider device which Andrei rightfully points out really does negatively affect ergonomics very quickly.
They've also given people like me who might be persuaded to go up to the S21+ absolutely no reason to do so, and, I'm sorry, I'm not paying $400 + trade in for a phone, let alone the $1200 Sammy wants for one, particularly given the device size.
wr3zzz - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
It's not cheaper if you raised the price by $200 and then offered a lesser option for $200 less. Used car salesman has been using this trick for ages.huyhung411991 - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
I think you need to correct this: The rear wide camera doesn't have DP-PDAF, but just PDAF with assisted laser AF.zodiacfml - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
still too expensive for just a phone. I got my s8+ around $520. If there is an acceptable price creep since then, less than $700.$800-850 could buy a decent gaming laptop which can alternatively be a compact desktop, and a desktop has even more value.
s.yu - Sunday, January 17, 2021 - link
At sub-$1000 I could only think of ugly entry level gaming laptops, sub-$2000 is midrange, where there would be some decent options. True TOTL is $4000 or so. Not saying any of the phones are cheap but laptops are not that cheap either.leo_sk - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
S21's screen seems most reasonable to me. I can differentiate 120Hz from 60Hz but would have a tougher time differentiating 1080p and 1440p at that sizeTams80 - Thursday, January 14, 2021 - link
It's nice to see Samsung sticking with Wacom EMR. I hope the Note line does stick around.But, having owned a Fold since launch: give us the fucking 3.5mm port back!
s.yu - Sunday, January 17, 2021 - link
So unfortunate, no longer is there a model with an up to date SoC, a digitizer, and the 3.5mm port all in one device.probedb - Friday, January 15, 2021 - link
But you only get 120Hz at 1080p on the S20 devices anyway. I have an S20+, realised it's just too big for me so getting the S21 which looks fine, plus Samsung do a good trade-in deal. I thought the removal of the microSD was an absolute no-no then realised how much I was actually using so the 256GB built-in will be fine.Andrei Frumusanu - Friday, January 15, 2021 - link
On the S20 series 1080 rendering on a 1440p screen is still sharper than 1080p rendering on a 1080p screen.Spunjji - Friday, January 15, 2021 - link
It would be nice if they'd do a non-pentile version of the 1080p displays, like they did with the Note 2's 720p display back in the day. I'd gladly take the reduced spatial resolution in exchange for better colour resolution.lilmoe - Friday, January 15, 2021 - link
No. That's what i thought and pointed out years ago here, but 1080p and even 720p native phones have been perceptually sharper than my s7 and s20 downscaled to 1080p and 720p.lilmoe - Wednesday, January 27, 2021 - link
I have them side-by-side now, and I stand corrected. Kind of. The colors and contrast are definitely better in the s21, but the s20's test is perceivably sharper.lilmoe - Wednesday, January 27, 2021 - link
That's when both are in 1080p.Galcobar - Friday, January 15, 2021 - link
Andrei, a bit of copyeditor advice if I may: you use certain words repetitively. "Actual" or "actually" is the most noticeable (but not the only one). You used it twice in the same sentence several times, two or three times in the same paragraph even more, and eighteen times in the one page where I counted.As an editor I would tell you most of the "actually" uses were unnecessary to make your point, especially when it prefaces a simple statement of specifications or a design decision. Similarly, the reader already knows it's an opinion piece, so telling us that it's your/a feeling when giving a subjective description isn't needed. Pull out the disclaimer only when the fact/opinion boundary is unclear.
lucasdclopes - Friday, January 15, 2021 - link
All models are too big for me. I had a galaxy S8 and now I have a galaxy s10e, the size of these two phones are perfectEdgar_in_Indy - Saturday, January 16, 2021 - link
I'm surprised and disappointed that a site as technical and hardware-focused as Anandtech would not list physical sensor sizes or make any mention of them. Especially since the move toward larger sensors with more light-gathering surface area has been a hallmark of high-end phones the last year or two.FloridaMan - Sunday, January 17, 2021 - link
Would rather have an OLED tv.Ali_ema - Monday, January 18, 2021 - link
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Ali_ema - Monday, January 18, 2021 - link
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Che - Monday, January 18, 2021 - link
That was a very negative read. And a lot too many uses of the word "actually". And this term "ugly compromises". Would that ever be written in an iPhone review/preview?pika2000 - Monday, January 18, 2021 - link
I thought the regular S21 doesn’t have ultra wideband? Only the Plus and Ultra?Gastec - Saturday, January 23, 2021 - link
They must be joking with those prices.yqqwe - Tuesday, July 13, 2021 - link
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